THIS WEEK: With four crucial WCHA points on the line, seventh-ranked North Dakota (14-8-6, 9-5-6 WCHA) travels to 14th-ranked Nebraska Omaha (16-10-2, 12-6-2 WCHA) this weekend.

North Dakota is in a 3-way tie for third place in the WCHA, just two points behind second-place Nebraska Omaha.

Saturday's game will be played outdoors at TD Ameritrade Park, the home of the College World Series, in an outdoor doubleheader billed as the "Mutual of Omaha Battles on Ice." The puck drops at 4:07 p.m. Central following a United States Hockey League (USHL) tilt between the Omaha Lancers and the Lincoln Stars.

Friday's game begins at 6:37 p.m. Central.

MEDIA COVERAGE: All UND men's hockey games, home and away, can be heard on 96.1 FM (The Fox) and on stations across the UND Hockey Radio Network. Veteran broadcaster Tim Hennessy is in his 34th season as the voice of the men's hockey program. Steve Olson serves as color analyst for home games. Free audio is available at UNDSports.com.

Friday's game will air live on NBC Sports Network, with Dan Parkhurst and Ken Hodge calling the action. Saturday's game can be seen regionally on Midco Sports Network in the Grand Forks viewing area and Cox Communications in the Omaha viewing area. Veteran hockey broadcaster Gary Sharp will handle the play-by-play duties.

A video webcast of Saturday's game is available at AmericaOneSports.com. Friday's game will not be available via webcast.

SOCIAL MEDIA: Receive real-time updates during all UND men's hockey games by following
@UNDMHockey. Additional coverage can be found at @UNDSports and @UNDSID.

Fans can also follow the action via live chat at UNDSports.com, featuring Brad Schlossman and Tom Miller of the Grand Forks Herald and Jayson Hajdu and Matt Schill of UND Athletics Media Relations.

ABOUT THE MAVERICKS: UNO is coming off a split of its WCHA home series against Michigan Tech last weekend. The Mavericks earned a 4-3 win in last Friday's opener but fell 2-1 in overtime to the Huskies on Saturday.

Junior forward Ryan Walters scored his team-leading 16th goal of the season on Friday, in the process becoming the first player in the nation to reach the 40-point plateau.
Senior goalie John Faulkner is one win away from tying Dan Ellis for most career victories (53) at UNO.

The Mavericks rank second nationally in scoring offense, averaging 3.57 goals per game.

UNO COACHING STAFF: Dean Blais (Minnesota ‘73) is in his fourth season at UNO and is 71-60-16 (.537).

Blais was head coach at North Dakota from 1994 to 2004 and led the program to NCAA championships in 1997 and 2000.
He is 333-175-49 (.642) in 14 seasons as a collegiate head coach.

Senior forward Danny Kristo (Eden Prairie, Minn.) leads all active UND players with three goals in those six games.

Junior goalie Clarke Saunders (Brockville, Ontario) made four starts against the Mavericks while with Alabama-Huntsville, going 2-2-0 with a 2.99 goals against average and a .937 save percentage. He made a UAH-record 58 saves in a 2-1 overtime win over UNO on Jan. 29, 2011, and has averaged 45 saves in his four appearances against UNO.

POLL POSITION: UND is ranked No. 7 in both the USCHO.com and USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine polls, released on Monday.

UNO is ranked 14th by USCHO and 15th by USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine.

See page 3 for complete poll information.

LAST ACTION: UND took three of four points from Wisconsin last weekend, tying 1-1 on Friday and winning 4-1 on Saturday.

Saturday's win snapped a 5-game winless skid that was the longest of head coach Dave Hakstol's 9-year tenure.

Sophomore forward Michael Parks (St. Louis, Mo.) enjoyed his first career 2-goal game on Saturday, while Zane Gothberg (Fr., Thief River Falls, Minn.) earned the win after starting both games of a series for the first time.

FIT TO BE TIED: Friday's 1-1 tie against Wisconsin was UND's NCAA-leading sixth tie of the year, its most since going 29-8-9 in 2000-01 en route to the national championship game.

NO ZANE, NO GAIN: Freshman goalie Zane Gothberg (Thief River Falls, Minn.) was named WCHA Rookie of the Week on Tuesday after backstopping UND to a 3-point weekend against Wisconsin.

Starting both games of a weekend series for the first time in his collegiate career, Gothberg stopped 50 of 52 shots as UND skated to a 4-1 win and 1-1 tie against the Badgers.

Gothberg has started four of UND's last five games, going 1-1-2 with a 2.18 goals against average and a .925 save percentage. He had a 2.99 goals against average and .897 save percentage in first five starts this year.
NO REST FOR THE WEARY: This weekend's series continues a stretch in which UND will play 12 of its final 14 regular season games (and 10 in a row) against teams currently ranked in the USCHO.com top 20 poll.

UND has faced the nation's fifth-toughest schedule according to the KRACH rankings.

KILL OR BE KILLED: UND's penalty kill went 8-for-8 in the series against Wisconsin and has now killed 16 of the last 17 opponent power plays and 20 of the last 22.

UND ranks third in the WCHA in penalty killing in both league games (84.2 percent) and all games (83.7 percent).

DEFENSE DEPARTMENT: Both UND's and UNO's defensive units have combined for 68 points, tying them for third nationally:

OH, WHAT A KNIGHT!: Knight has reached the scoresheet in 23 of his 27 games this season and, earlier this year, amassed a 19-game point streak that was the fourth-longest in school history and its longest in 25 years:

With a team-leading 36 points, Knight is closing in his third straight 40-point season, a feat last accomplished at UND in 2007-08 when T.J. Oshie and Ryan Duncan both did it.

UND is 31-2-6 all-time when Knight scores a goal.

One of 77 players nominated for the Vote For Hobey fan voting process at HobeyBakerAward.com, Knight was leading all players with more than 22,000 votes as of late Tuesday afternoon, nearly 8,000 more votes than his next-closest competitor, Johnnny Gaudreau of Boston College.

THE COUNT OF DANNY KRISTO: Kristo enters the week having reached the scoresheet in 11 of his last 13 games, racking up 11 goals and 10 assists during that stretch.

Kristo's 16 goals this season tie him for the WCHA lead and for third nationally, behind only St. Lawrence's Greg Carey (18) and Boston College's Steven Whitney (17).

SECOND-HALF SURGE: With a win and a tie to start the month of February, UND is hoping to continue its trend under ninth-year head coach Dave Hakstol of playing its best hockey after the calendar turns to Feburary.

UND is 88-26-12 (.746) from February 1st on under Hakstol, including a 37-7-3 (.819) since 2009-10.

In his first eight years, Hakstol has typically guided his teams to a higher winning percentage after Christmas:

This season marked just the second time in the last seven years that UND won 10 games before Christmas, and just the fourth time during Hasktol's nine-year tenure.

CAPTAIN'S LOG: With 149 career games played, senior captain Andrew MacWilliam (Calgary, Alberta) is the active leader among WCHA defensemen and is tied for fifth nationally among all skaters:

CENTURY CLUB: MacWilliam is one of seven UND skaters who have played in at least 100 career games, tied with Colorado College and Minnesota Duluth for the most in the WCHA.

Junior defensemen Derek Forbort (Duluth, Minn.) and Dillon Simpson (Edmonton, Alberta) each played in their 100th career game last Friday and Saturday, respectively, against Wisconsin.

WORKIN' OVERTIME: Following Friday's 1-1 overtime tie against Wisconsin, UND is now unbeaten (2-0-5) in seven overtime games this year after going winless (0-1-3) in extra time last season.

NODAK NATION: Prior to the end of the National Hockey League (NHL) lockout, North Dakota had been the top hockey draw in all of North America this season.

UND is averaging 11,712 fans in the 11,634-seat Ralph Engelstad Arena, more than any other NCAA, American Hockey League, East Coast Hockey League or Canadian Hockey League team.

No other NCAA team is averaging more than 10,000 fans per game. Wisconsin ranks second with an average of 9,999 fans per home game.

Last season, North Dakota led the nation in total attendance (419,981) and average attendance (9,999.5) for all games -- which includes home, away and neutral -- and also led the country in total home attendance (249,501).

GOLDEN GRIMALDI: Freshman forward Rocco Grimaldi (Rossmoor, Calif.) helped lead the United States to a gold medal at the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) World Junior Hockey Championship in January in Ufa, Russia.

Grimaldi scored the game-tying and game-winning goals in the gold medal game, his first goals of the tournament, and was named the player of the game for the U.S. He became UND's 19th medalist at the tournament and the 12th to win gold:

Finley, Genoway, Malone and Watkins each made their NHL debuts, while Greene led the Los Angeles Kings to a Stanley Cup championship, defeating Parise, Zajac and the New Jersey Devils in the finals.

LUCKY 13: Connor Gaarder's (So., Edina, Minn.) hat trick on Nov. 3 against No. 12 Boston University was UND's first since March 11, 2011, when Matt Frattin and Jason Gregoire each scored three times in an 8-0 win over Michigan Tech in the first round of the WCHA playoffs.

Gaarder, a walk-on, had entered the night with four goals in 36 career games and has just one goal in 19 games since.

All three of his goals on Nov. 3 either tied the game or put UND in the lead. His third and final goal was the power-play game-winner.

FAREWELL SEASON: The 2012-13 season is UND's last as a member of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA). Beginning in 2013-14, UND will join the new National Collegiate Hockey Conference (NCHC), which will also consist of Denver, Colorado, Miami, Minnesota Duluth, Nebraska Omaha, St. Cloud State and Western Michigan.

Since joining the WCHA in 1959-60, UND leads the league in both regular season (15) and playoff (11) conference championships.

In 2011-12, UND made league history by becoming the first school to win three consecutive Broadmoor Trophies as WCHA Final Five champions.

CONFERENCE CALL: UND was ranked No. 2 in both the WCHA preseason media and coaches polls, and freshman forward Rocco Grimaldi (Rossmoor, Calif.) was named preseason rookie of the year in both:

Grimaldi received the rare distinction of earning preseason WCHA Rookie of the Year honors for the second straight year. Grimaldi was the consensus choice for preseason rookie of the year last season before missing all but four games with a knee injury.

Grimaldi, who had one goal and one assist in those four games, retained his rookie status for 2012-13.

HELLO, MY NAME IS: UND's 2012-13 roster features seven newcomers, including five incoming freshmen, one returning freshman, and one junior transfer.

Schmaltz was a first-round draft pick of St. Louis in June, while Gothberg was taken by Boston in the sixth round of the 2010 draft.

The returning freshman is forward Colten St. Clair (Gilbert, Ariz.), who sat out the entire 2011-12 season due to an NCAA eligibility issue.

The junior transfer is goalie Clarke Saunders (Brockville, Ontario), who came to UND after two seasons at the University of Alabama-Huntsville.

Last season, Saunders posted a solid .906 save percentage and an NCAA-leading 34 saves per game for a UAH team that went 2-28-1.

An eighth player, junior forward Mitch MacMillan (Penticton, British Columbia), became eligible to play for UND in January. MacMillan transferred to UND last January after a season-and-a-half at St. Cloud State. He is the older brother of UND sophomore forward Mark MacMillan.

FEELING A DRAFT: UND's 2012-13 roster features 14 National Hockey League draft picks, including 2012 1st-rounder Jordan Schmaltz (Verona, Wis.). The freshman defenseman was taken in the first round (25th overall) by the St. Louis Blues.

UND boasts six draft picks among its defensive corps, the most in program history.

MAY I HAVE THIS DANCE?: UND advanced to the NCAA postseason tournament for the 10th consecutive season in 2011-12, the second-longest active streak in the NCAA behind only Michigan (22).

It was also the 27th all-time postseason appearance for UND. Head coach Dave Hakstol has now led the program to the NCAA tournament in each of his first eight seasons behind the UND bench, including Frozen Four appearances in five of those eight years.

NICKNAME/LOGO: The University of North Dakota officially retired its longtime "Fighting Sioux" nickname and logo prior to the 2012-13 athletics season.

UND's varsity athletics teams will operate without an official nickname until 2015, when the University will undertake the process of adopting the third official nickname in school history. Until 2015, the Uuniversity's varsity athletics teams will be referred to as "the University of North Dakota," "North Dakota,"
or "UND."

UND adopted the "Fighting Sioux" nickname in 1930 after previously being known as the "Flickertails."